Tales of the Madman Underground [Paperback]

Karl Shoemaker has one goal for his senior year: be normal. He plans on taking it one day at a time, and his quest for normalcy includes letting go of the abnormal in his life. This involves intentionally avoiding his best friend Paul, actually taking college-track classes, meeting new people (girls especially), stopping enabling his alcoholic mother, and staying afloat with his five jobs. Above all else, Karl is looking to punch his ticket out of what he believes is really holding him back: group therapy.

For some reason, teachers in the '70s thought school-mandated therapy was the best response for kids with problems. With 17 counselors (and counting) over the past five years or so, the Madman Underground certainly has their share of problems. One of the members talks to a stuffed rabbit she carries around, another has crying jags over the littlest things, and the file grows thicker for every other person in the group. Not even a brand new member, a girl named Marti who Karl immediately hits it off with, can keep Karl from wanting to return to the place where "normal" is left at the door. Karl wasn't always a part of group therapy, though, and he believes there is hope for leaving Lightsburg, Ohio --- and his family's past --- behind.

The Shoemaker name is famous in Lightsburg, and no one will let Karl forget it. His father, Doug, was a widely popular mayor until an unfortunate political scandal and then an even more untimely death. His mother never quite recovered, and her already heavy drinking led to full-blown alcoholism. Karl never knows what kind of mother will show up on a daily basis and usually manages to tiptoe around her drunken rages. He spends most of his time checking his hidden money caches for IOU's from his mother and cleaning up the mess of her numerous cats. He cannot wait for the day that he can leave his family scandal behind, but first he must finish his senior year.

TALES OF THE MADMAN UNDERGROUND covers the first six days of Karl's senior year with numerous flashbacks to cover the history of every situation. He is enticed with a get-out-of-group-therapy card from one his teachers, which falls perfectly into his Operation: Be Normal plan. As the days progress, he continually struggles with his desire to overcome his shortcomings and the fact that his identity is firmly planted with the other madmen. Where do his allegiances lie, and was there ever really a possibility that he actually could be normal?

John Barnes never shows whether or not group therapy in school is effective, but he does help readers realize the power of friendship in healing some of life's problems. The author also shows us that no matter how much we hope or try, it is sometimes impossible to escape who we really are and that is not necessarily horrible. If you're looking for an upbeat story of a teenager beating the odds, TALES OF A MADMAN UNDERGROUND isn't necessarily your book. Instead, it is a realistic look at how teenagers cope with whatever life has dealt them.

--- Reviewed by Benjamin Boche

Karl Shoemaker is a high school senior with a plan to be normal in order to avoid being assigned to group therapy for his last year of high school. The glitch in his plan is that it involves avoiding his fellow Madmen and Karl's heart is too big to abandon his friends. His friends are disturbed and desperate at times, but endearing and faithful. The adults in Karl's life are alternately outrageous and heroic (from his Crazy Cat Lady mom to a ranting teacher and a dirty old man upholsterer and helpful shopkeepers.) Karl's view on the world is appealing and hilarious and, at times, heartbreaking. His creative use of profanity and analogy is laugh-out-loud funny.

A terrific book for older teens who are not intimidated by its length and intelligence and a tender and funny reminiscence for adults who grew up in the 70s and like a good read. My 14, 16 and 18 year old kids all enjoyed this book and we had to take turns having custody of the book.

I thought this book would be my kind of book and I was right. This coming-of-age story set during the first six days of the school year in 1973 in a blue-collar town in Ohio had everything I like in a YA novel: angst-ridden teens who are actually trying to better their lives; superb writing which is humorous and poignant in turns; historically accurate; characters who are multifaceted-- not just one-dimensional; and dialogue which seems real and well-timed.

Karl Shoemaker wants his senior year to be 'normal' rather than one dominated by the drama associated with the forced therapy group he has been a part of since 4th grade. As he tries to distance himself from the group he realizes that he can't and doesn't want to distance himself from the friends he has made in the group, The Madman Underground. This rag-tag group of kids who all have pretty hefty problems are truly his support network. Adults, like his hippie, cat-loving, alcoholic mother, may let him down but the members of the Madman Underground never do.

The subtitle of this book is: A Historical Romance, 1973. I was in high school in 1973 so I was on the lookout for authentic, accurate cultural references and the book was full of them. Here are a few that I found charming/funny: Karl sprayed his pits (he put on deodorant); the hoods came in the bathroom to smoke (the drug-users, hard-core kids--most schools at that time period had a smoking area but often the hoods would come inside and smoke in the bathroom when the weather was bad outside); Marti drove a Ford LTD (I think half of my friends' parents had LTDs when I was in high school); she was such a J.D. (juvenile delinquent); platform wedges (shoes that gals wore that made them about five inches taller); references to Kent State and Vietnam (The National Guard killed four students on the campus of Kent State who were protesting the Vietnam War.) Barnes did a great job placing the plot accurately in the early 1970s.

Common Sense Media, an organization which reviews books and films and gives them an age-rating for appropriateness (rather than ban or censor them), grades this book as 16+. I would agree that this is a book for a mature, older teenager. There is quite a bit of profanity and talk of sexual issues. But I think that readers of Marcus Zusak (I Am the Messenger); John Green (Looking for Alaska; Paper Towns); and Libba Bray (Going Bovine) will enjoy this book also.

This book is 530 pages long but it felt like a short book. I didn't want it to end. It's that good.

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Tales of the Madman Underground

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